Take What You Want - The 83rd Hunger Games
by airplanes in the night sky
Summary: Tess is the only family that Jean has, yet here she is, about to be fighting for her life alongside Lawson, a boy she'd just met. What is someone supposed to do when they're chosen for the Hunger Games? Stress over it? Cry over it? How would it help? The Capitol just take what they want, and what they want is a good show. She'll give them that, alright.


The cockerel's cries are heard throughout the entire farm. Damn him.

I struggle to open my eyes, not wanting to end the wonderful bliss called sleep. When I do, I am momentarily blinded by the sunlight. Stupid sunlight. It's always a damned sunny day in District Ten, whether it be summer or winter. That giant ball of fire in the sky never seems to take a rest.

I roll over and stare at the floor of my bedroom. It has an old rug spread over it and is littered with clothes here and there. My dresser has several drawers not pushed in and there's a shirt lying on my bedside table. _I need to clean this place up_, I think, knowing that I probably won't until Jean told me to.

After about five minutes, I can no longer bear the heat of the sun seeping through the window and I drop out of the bed. I pick up pieces of clothing on the way before tossing them in a laundry basket on my way to the bathroom. When I'm out of my bedroom, I search the hallway for any signs of my sister. There was the sound of pots and pans clanging against each other from the kitchen, so I expect Jean to be awake and making breakfast.

Our house rarely has any hot water, so I don't see the point in showering. I brush my teeth and splash the cold water onto my face. When I'm done, I brush my dirty blonde hair before tying it up into a high ponytail. I stare at my reflection in the mirror, stained with droplets of water.

My cheeks and nose are covered with freckles, and when I was little, when my parents were still alive, my father used to say that they would join up to make a constellation. I'd thought that it would be a pretty damn complicated constellation. My hair is decently neat now that I've brushed it and it hangs in a loose wave down to my shoulder blades. The teeth at the front of my mouth are crooked, which annoys me to no end. But it's not like we have enough money to waste on dental surgery.

I sigh. Admitting that it was as good as it was going to get, I shuffle out of the bathroom and into my bedroom. I pull a dress from the top of my dresser which I had ironed the night before. It used to be my mother's, apparently, and was my sister's for the amount of time that it still fit her. Then it was handed down to me in its mildly battered-up state.

The dress was dark green with a brown and pink floral pattern. I thought that it looked really nice, and it was a pity that I was starting to grow out of it. I was fifteen this year and I doubted I would still fit in it next year.

When I tie the ribbon around my waist, I pull on a pair of black shoes before jogging to the kitchen. As I've predicted, my sister Jean was just finished with putting eggs and pancakes onto plates at the table.

"Morning, sunshine," she says, raising an eyebrow at me. "It's strange for you to be up so early."

"I just want to get the morning over with." I take a seat on a chair and pick up a fork.

"I'll go get ready now," Jean tells me as I eat. "Clean up after yourself."

She walks off to the direction of the bathroom, where I expect her to take a shower. Jean takes a shower every morning, for whatever reason. She says she feels grimy when she doesn't. I kind of do as well, but that's only normal. Besides, it wasn't me who paid for the water bills anyway. It was mainly Jean, but sometimes the landlord helps out.

We live on a huge farm with tons of other families, about eleven or twelve. Half of them are orphaned families or groups of orphans living together because of the generosity of the landlord. His name was Cliff, and he was about sixty or something. He let kids work on the farm for exchange of housing and money for food. Jean used to work here, but she got a job somewhere else a while ago and now we just kept the house.

Cliff is still super-nice though, and his wife Lucy brings around baskets of oven-baked bread on random evenings because she gets bored and a bit lonely. Their son lives in the main town, you see, and they rarely get to see their grandchildren.

I finish eating and wash my plate in the sink. After putting it on the drying rack, Jean walks out of the bathroom in a dress with a wet mop of hair on her head.

"Let me do your hair," I say. It was a tradition for me to braid her hair every Reaping, since she was so hopeless at it herself, and it's been going on even when she's no longer of reaping age. I don't usually bother with my own hair because I can never make it look right on myself.

I make Jean sit on the couch and grab a brush before brushing out strands of her honey blonde locks. Her hair was so much nicer and lighter than mine, and it was always stick-straight and not easily messed up. It was also easy to work with, so I effortlessly pull out little strands and begin braiding it. It turns out into a French braid with the end tucked up.

"Looks great, Tess," Jean commented, glancing at herself in the bathroom mirror as I put the hairbrush away. She gives me a little hug before we walk to the living room and out the front door.

It's still so damn sunny that I have to shield my eyes with my arm. You'd think that living in such a sunny place would give me some sort of gorgeous tan, but my skin burnt more than it tanned. So it's remained this weird half-tanned half-pale colour, but I don't usually give it very much thought.

We walk down the dirt road, me commenting how hot it was and how the cows in the ranch nearby smelled, while Jean walked behind me, probably only listening half the time. She was twenty this year, making a five-year gap between us. When we first moved into the farm, she was sixteen, and it was pretty awesome how a teenager like her would put up with taking care of an eleven-year-old like me.

Jean and I keep walking until we reach the end of the dirt road, where we cross paths with Lucy, the landlord's wife and some other boy. He looks to be about a year older than me.

"Morning, darlings," Lucy says, smiling. Her smile is big and genuine and makes stretches on the sides of her face. Lucy's eyes are a bright, piercing blue, but they still had a kind of friendliness about them.

"Good morning, Lucy," Jean says. "Such a sad thing to be heading off to the Reaping on such a fine day." (That is kind of a lie. Why would you call a scorching hot day a fine day?)

"I wish I could go but my legs wouldn't be able to take me much farther than here and back," Lucy says and she laughs. "Here's my grandson. Lawson, say hi."

The boy waves at us. "Hi."

He's tall, taller than Jean, and his hair was messy and a light brown. He has the same eyes as his grandmother, and I can almost see the family resemblance if Lawson doesn't look so… depressed.

I figure I won't have enough time to ask the questions I have, so I just say, "Hi."

"Nice to meet you, Lawson. I'm Jean, and this is Tess," Jean says politely.

"Lawson, why don't you walk these lovelies to the District Square? Wouldn't want them to get hurt on the way," Lucy says and she smiles.

"Sure," he replies ever so enthusiastically. Or not.

And so he does accompany us. We walk with me in the middle and Jean trying to make conversation with Lawson, but he's just so depressing that it upsets me and makes me feel like I should do something to help him. But by the look of him, I doubt he would appreciate a friendship hug. Soon enough, Jean gives up the attempt of any conversation and we just walk in silence.

So we don't get hurt on the way to the main town. Lucky for us that we have Lawson, I guess. The town gets more crowded as we go closer to the centre of the district and I have to hold Jean's hand as to not lose her. I didn't hold Lawson's hand so he got lost somewhere on the way. We arrive at the group of three single files waiting to register.

"Be safe, okay?" Jean tells me, hugging me and kissing the top of my head. "Good luck."

"I'll need it," I mumble, but she walks off before she could hear me. As I stand in line, I catch glimpses of her turning her head back and smiling, but soon she just fades into the mess of people.

* * *

I'm standing in line with a bunch of other fifteen-year-olds who I have never talked to in my life. My fingers are fidgeting and my heart rate is quickening a bit as we all wait impatiently. I glance around at the area where the families wait for any sign of Jean, but from my position and height, it's hard to see anything.

Finally I'm too tired of standing still. I turn to the girl standing to the left of me.

"Hi, I'm Tess," I say and the girl looks shocked that I was speaking to her all so suddenly.

I hold out my hand for her and she slowly shakes it. "Uh, hi. I'm Kaylee."

Flashing a grin, I drown myself in pointless and probably nonsense conversation with Kaylee. It was all trying to get to know her, like, "Do you have any siblings?" or "When's your birthday?" or "Which part of the District do you live in?"

I end up knowing a shockingly amount of information about Kaylee, like her favourite colour and the name of her pet hamster, but the information doesn't include her surname. Then the Mayor starts to walk towards the microphone.

"Nice talking to you, Kaylee," I say, hoping that my nerves had finally calmed down.

Mayor Vixen smiles grimly at the crowd before making his yearly speech; the Treaty of Treason. I've memorized almost every word of it, which I'm usually good at. His voice is plain and unexcited, but I don't blame him.

"The Capitol's forces are doing everything in their power to keep the Districts at peace," he says finally. "We hope that the tragic event of the First and Second Rebellion do not happen again."

He walks off and a projector screen rolls down. The video plays. You know what video; the video of the Dark Days and the Second Rebellion. The destruction of District Thirteen and the people being enslaved to the Capitol, the armies of both sides falling, and the screams of the Mockingjay as Katniss Everdeen burnt in her own flames at her public execution.

The video ended.

Our escort, Valeria Torrone makes her way onstage. She doesn't look as Capitol-like as she should have, since after her first Reaping she's realized how she should probably tone it down a bit. Her blazer and pencil skirt don't look that bad, other than the fact that they were bright neon green.

"Good morning, District Ten!" she exclaims. Lie; it's hot and I'm sweaty and some kid out there is about to be sent to their death sentence. "I wouldn't want to waste your time. I'm just as excited as you are to get this over with!"

I wonder if she was right.

Valeria makes her way to the large, sphere-shaped glass bowl and dips her hand into the pile of papers. She picks one paper up and walks to the other bowl to get another name. That was her way of doing things; she liked making things hasty and quick.

I suck my breath in. We've never had to take the tesserae because we grew all the food we needed on the farm, and my name is in there only three times. What chance did I have? A small one, but it was there.

I watch closely as she's about to read out the names. The first letter is a T, but is she reading out the girl's name or the boy's name first?

"The tributes are Tess Hetwheiler and Lawson Mulinroe!"

_Oh no._

* * *

**A/N: Well, another story! How was it? I really like Tess and I think this story is going to turn out pretty well, if I continue it. I'm going to try and update the SYOT as much as this; I'll update this story every two weeks and the SYOT on the weeks I don't update this.  
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**Just a note on District Ten; I imagine them to have southern accents to go with the theme of livestock and cowboys and such. This includes Tess, of course. Not a strong southern accent, but it's there and it's noticable. Just something to help you guys get into her character. This story also takes place after the 82nd Hunger Games, but I'll try not to give away too much. Hope you guys enjoy this story! Happy reading!**

**~airplanes in the night sky**


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